Beijing, Aug 10 (EFE).- China on Thursday slammed restrictions imposed by the United States on American investments in Chinese technology companies and warned Washington that it will “resolutely safeguard” its rights and interests.
“Restricting US companies’ investments in China with national security as a front is a clear act of overstretching the concept of security and politicizing business engagement. The move’s real aim is to deprive China of its right to develop and selfishly pursue US supremacy at the expense of others,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said.
“This is blatant economic coercion and tech bullying, an act that seriously violates the principles of market economy and fair competition, undermines the international economic and trading order, destabilizes global industrial and supply chains and hurts the interests of both China and the US and the global business community,” the spokesperson added.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order that will prohibit American firms and individuals from investing in three key sectors of the Chinese economy: semiconductors and microelectronics; quantum information technologies; and artificial intelligence.
“This program will seek to prevent foreign countries of concern from exploiting US investment in this narrow set of technologies that are critical to support their development of military, intelligence, surveillance, and cyber-enabled capabilities that risk US national security,” the White House said in a statement.
China “strongly deplores and firmly opposes the US’s single-minded rollout of restrictions on investments in China” and has lodged a formal complaint with the US, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said.
This is one of the most significant actions that the Biden administration has taken to restrict US investment in China and comes after months of talks with G7 members, whom Washington has urged to take similar steps.
The Chinese foreign ministry urged Biden to follow through with his commitment of “not seeking to ‘decouple’ from China or halt China’s economic development.”
“We urge the US to follow through on that commitment, stop politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing tech and trade issues, immediately cancel the wrong decisions, remove the restrictions on investments in China and create an enabling environment for China-US business cooperation,” it added. EFE
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